The silence [at the other end of telephone] … felt absolute, as if he had been trying to telephone God —William Mcllvanney

Silence filled the space [of empty room] like water in a lock —Julia Whedon

Silence filled the sunlit room like gas —Harvey Swados

Silence grand as Versailles —Lorrie Moore

Silence heavy in the air like a threat —William Boyd

Silence … hung in the air like a dead pheasant —Penelope Gilliatt

Silence is deep as eternity —Thomas Carlyle

Silence is his delight and instruction now … as if a blessed quiet came to him like water made into music —George Garrett

Silence … like a great hand pressed across a mouth struggling to give vent to a scream —Stephen French Whitman

Silence … like an explosion —John Fowles

The silence like an ocean rolled, and broke against my ear —Emily Dickinson

The silence of the place was like a sleep, so full of rest it seemed —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Silence … poured in between them like a drifting dune —Lawrence Durrell

The silence ran between them like a fuse —William McIlvanney

Silence, rather like somebody had died —Elizabeth Spencer

Silence … rich and winey, like a rest in music —Zona Gale

Silence rose like a mountain —Arthur A. Cohen

Silence settled on him like a mist —Frank Ross

Silence … so intense that it was like a third presence in the room —Antonia White

Silence so thick that he imagined he could cut a slice out of it, like a succulent melon —Ella Leffland

Silence … steadily filling up the bare white room, like water rising in a tank —Christopher Isherwood

Silence stretched out like membrane on the point of tearing —Ross Macdonald

Silence [in tension-filled room] stretched like a wire vibrating with impulses that were never heard —Hortense Calisher

Silence that falls between them … like deep snow —Donald Justice

Silence that fell upon her like a restraining hand —Nadine Gordimer

Silence that made his own breathing seem like the breaking of distant surf —Mark Helprin

Silence walked beside them like the ghost of a dead man —W. Somerset Maugham

The silence [in the room] was like an invasion, a possession by the great silent mountains —Gina Berriault

The silence was like a tranquilizer —Mignon F. Ballard

Silent as a burglar behind a curtain —Raymond Chandler

Silent as a cat on velvet —Reynolds Price

Silent as a country churchyard —Thomas Babington Macaulay

Silent as a ghost —Percy Bysshe Shelley

(Rooms) silent as a lantern —Daniela Gioseffi

Silent as a midnight thought —Anne Finch

Silent as a prisoner —Richard Ford

Silent as a snowflake settled on the ground —Donald Seaman

Silent as a standing pool —William Wordsworth

Silent as a stuffed sausage —Helen Hudson

Silent as a white shark —Diane Ackerman

Silent as despair —John Greenleaf Whittier

Silent as despairing love —William Blake

A modern variant: “Silent as a breaking heart.”

Silent as flight —Wendell Berry

(An object) silent as pillows —Diane Wakoski

Silent as rain or fleece —Lawrence Durrell

[Thoughts] silent … as space —Lord George Byron

Here is the complete simile as it appeared in Don Juan: “There was a depth of feeling to embrace … thoughts, boundless, deep, but silent too as space.”

Silent as the moon —John Milton

Many writers continue to link the moon with silence, with frequent twists and extensions. Some examples from contemporary literature include: “She was as silent and distant as the moon” from a short story by Kate Wheeler and “Silent as the dark side of the moon” from Water Music by T. Coraghessan Boyle.

Silent as the pictures on the wall —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Silent as the rays of the sun —Slogan, Silent Glow Oil Burner Corporation

Silent as thought —Sir William Davenant

Silent as your shadow —Colley Cibber

Silent … like an empty room —Carlos Baker

Silent like a stockpiled bomb —C.D.B. Bryan

Silently as a dream —William Cowper

“Silent as a dream” variations include: “Dumb as a dream” by Algernon Charles Swinburne and “Mute as any dream” by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

(Made his way through the yard as) silently as a tom-cat on the prowl —Donald Seaman

Silently as a turtle —John Hersey

Silent men, like still waters, are deep and dangerous —H. G. Bohn’s Handbook of Proverbs

(The crowd was) silent … totally, in a hush like the air in the treetops —Paul Horgan

A small silence came between us, as precise as a picture hanging on a wall —Jean Stafford

So quiet … it felt like Sunday without church —Elizabeth Spencer

(You were) so silent it was like playing with a snowman —Martin Cruz Smith

Soundless as a gong before it’s struck —Donald Justice

Soundless as any breeze —Dame Edith Sitwell

The sound of the silence was like the hum of her own nerves stretched taut —William Humphrey

Speechless as an anchorite —Lawrence Durrell

Speechless as though his tongue were paralyzed —Ouida

Stealthy silence as of a neatly executed crime —Joseph Conrad

(The house was) still as a bottomless well —Hugh Walpole

Still as a desert —Anon

Still as a mouse —Richard Flecknoe

An extension of this by Sir Walter Scott: “Quiet as a mouse in a hole.”

Still as a stone —The Holy Bible/Exodus

Still as mourners —Mark Strand

Still as the grave —William Shakespeare

Still like gulls —W. H. Auden

Stillness struck like a stopped guitar —Sharon Sheehe Stark

A sudden silence … shook them like an inaudible explosion —Frank Tuohy

There seemed to be a lot of silence in the house, like something deep and sticky you had to wade through —Jane Rogers

There was absolute silence. It said as plainly as if silence were a language itself, “Go back.” —Flannery O’Connor

Silence

lose one’s tongue To lose temporarily the power of speech, to be struck dumb. Such speechlessness is usually attributed to emotions such as shyness, fear, or surprise.

pipe down To become quiet or mute; to cease talking. In this expression, pipe may carry any of its numerous sound-related meanings, ranging from a shrill noise to the vocal cords themselves. In contemporary usage, the phrase is most often imperative.

see a wolf To temporarily lose one’s voice, to become tongue-tied. The phrase expresses the old belief that if a man saw a wolf before the wolf’saw him, the man would temporarily lose the power of speech. The expression dates from the late 16th century.

Our young companion has seen a wolf, … and has lost his tongue in consequence. (Sir Walter Scott, Quentin Durward, 1823)

The uses of silence examined here include the muted tones in Kierkegaard's fear and trembling, political silencing (such as cartographic silences in Brian Friels's translations and Becket's Cold War texts) silencing one's own voice (self-censorship, how to foster silence), fascination with the void (the image of the falling man), body language(the secret sensation of self and other, the Japanese tea ceremony as a form of contemplative ellipses), pure and uncorrupted pantomime (classical and medieval science), silenced women in Latin elegy, and speaking in "saintly silence.

Drawing heavily upon the work of Nelle Morton and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the book opens with an examination of what Muers appealingly terms the "garrulous silencing of God," whereby the universe of language we employ to define God, from the colloquial to the liturgical, paradoxically confines or "silences" God.

All content on this website, including dictionary, thesaurus, literature, geography, and other reference data is for informational purposes only. This information should not be considered complete, up to date, and is not intended to be used in place of a visit, consultation, or advice of a legal, medical, or any other professional.